Funding
Eight labor unions made a five-year funding pledge to EPI at its inception: AFSCME, United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, United Mine Workers, International Association of Machinists, Communications Workers of America, Service Employees International Union, and United Food and Commercial Workers Union. According to EPI, about 29% of its funding between 2005 and 2009 was supplied by labor unions and about 53% came from foundation grants.
EPI is one of a number of labor-affiliated groups that was funded by the Tobacco Institute—the now-defunct trade group of the tobacco industry—to oppose excise taxes. The tobacco industry was concerned about the cost of excise taxes on cigarettes, which the Tobacco Institute estimated would cost it "half-billion dollars a year in lost income." The Institute funded groups outside the tobacco industry, like EPI, to act as a third-party voice in opposition to excise taxes.
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